On the weekend of the Occupy LA anniversary, Occupy Fights Foreclosures, a subcommittee of Occupy LA, shines light on the business model of fraud used by the financial industry that devastated the economy and the lives of millions of Californians who are now struggling to keep their homes. Homeowners and activists gather to illustrate the timeline of frauds that start before a homeowner signs on the dotted line and continue through the lockouts and evictions following fraudulent foreclosures.

Almost all foreclosures have been found to have suspicious documentation or legal violations according to February's audit by the San Francisco County Assessor-Recorders office. The newly-signed California Homeowners Bill of Rights does give homeowners a fighting chance against the fraudulent practices. But right now, homeowners are without those protections. In LA County alone, there are almost 8,000 active foreclosures with over 32,000 expected by the end of the year when the law goes into effect. If nothing is done, in less than 100 days, over 32,000 families in LA County will lose a house that they would keep starting January 1 — that's about 65 families every business hour.

"How does it make any sense that any homeowner would lose their home today, when they wouldn't on January 1st?," says Carlos Marroquin, homeowner advocate with Occupy Fights Foreclosures. "On top of all the fraud that came to light at the beginning of this crisis, new companies have appeared precisely to take advantage of the disaster created by the banks. It's an entire cycle of looting and pillaging."

On May Day, the Portland Liberation Organizing Council, the Black Working Group, and dozens of allies and community partners helped Alicia Jackson re-occupy her home which was unjustly evicted from last July. Here's part of the report from the PLOC:

Today, the community of NE Portland rallied and reclaimed the home of Alicia Jackson, longtime Portland resident, who had been driven from her home last July. Approximately 400 people gathered in Woodlawn at 9am and marched with banners, music, and chanting the four blocks to Alicia’s home. The Portland Liberation Organizing Council and the Black Working Group, along with a dozen allies and partners, organized this home defense.

The neighborhoods hosted a press conference on the steps of the house with Alicia, Ahjamu Umi of the Black Working Group, Father Jack Mosbrucker, retired from St Therese Catholic Church , and Rain Crowe of PLOC. The community then cut a yellow ribbon to enter the house and begin cleaning out the accumulated dust. Other community members began carting in soil, garden tools, and supplies. The neighbors brought out food dishes, spaghetti, pizza, and snacks to share with the crowd.

“Home is where the heart is,” Alicia said during the reclamation.

The home defense went forward without incident and appeared be broadly supported by the neighborhood, many of whom already had “Support your neighbors, stop foreclosure” signs in their front yards. The sun came out as community members shared food, played games, and danced a Maypole together.

On 4.9.2012 Occupy Raleigh along with Occupy Greensboro, Take Back The Land, Save Our Homes, and Mortgage Fraud NC attempted to defend the home of a family illegally foreclosed on in Southeast Raleigh. This is a recap of the day's events including the eventual arrests. IMPORTANT NOTES: This was not an attempt by Occupy to squat. This was an attempt to allow the family access to their belongings before they were trashed, and to hopefully allow them some way to stay in the home and/or bring attention to the reality of mortgage fraud. Occupy's assistance was in fact requested by the homeowner!

Join us in a chain hunger strike to demand the banksters be held accountable for systematic foreclosure fraud against hundreds of thousands of homeowners. On April 6, 2012, Donna Vieira ended her 16-day hunger strike. Tim Nonn (Occupy Petaluma) is continuing the hunger strike, to protest the lack of prosecution of the banks for foreclosure fraud. Tim began on April 6 and will end his leg of the hunger strike on April 13.

We invite others to participate in the rolling hunger strike by signing up for one or more days. If you are interested in participating, please email Brenda (brendahreed@sbcglobal.net) to be placed on the schedule of hunger strikers.

Join with members of the Occupy Movement by standing in solidarity with the millions of homeowners who have already been foreclosed or are facing foreclosure. The banks have been given a license to steal our homes by the government. We must demand accountability and criminal prosecutions for these massive crimes that are wrecking families’ lives and our communities. (Pictured above in SF AG’s office: Tim Nonn second from the left and Donna Vieira second from the right, along with supporters from Oakland and Sacramento.)

A family in Raleigh has been evicted and forced from their home through an illegal foreclosure. They have been ordered to remove all personal property from their home by Sunday April 8, 2012. The family has bravely chosen to fight eviction and foreclosure and is requesting community support. Evidence of robo-signing by the bank, which is a fraud, has been uncovered and the entire foreclosure process is under attorney review.

It is up to us to send a clear message that we will not allow this to happen.

On Monday, April 9th, community participants will enter the house and refuse to leave as an act of civil disobedience. Another 10 families in this predominantly African-American neighborhood are facing similarly illegal foreclosure and eviction.

Monday, April 9th, at 11AM Occupy Atlanta will host a Press Conference on the lawn of Vine City resident Pamela Flores’ home at 245 Griffin Street. Councilman Michael Julian Bond, Ralph David Abernathy III, Pastor Dexter Johnson, and representatives from Communication Workers of America will join. This is part of the Occupy movement's 99% spring offensive.

Pamela bought her home at an inflated amount in 2006, the height of the crime spree at the hands of American banking institutions. In 2009 she attempted to get a loan modification with Bank of America through the “Making Homes Affordable” program. The bank told her that in order to qualify she needed to miss 3-4 mortgage payments; this is a scam that has already put countless Americans out of their homes. During the time she missed payments, at the banks request and in order to meet the loan modification criteria, she fell into foreclosure. By qualifying for the “Making Homes Affordable” program foreclosure was temporarily avoided. Pamela began to pay trial period monthly payments for the “Making Homes Affordable” program. When it was time for Bank of America to grant her the promised modification, they instead mailed her a notification alleging that she failed to make four out of five payments. Her home, unknowing to her, was slated for auction at the Fulton County courthouse during the time the bank claimed to be researching their records for the “missing” payments. The thing is, Pamela Flores never missed a payment, in fact she was never even late, and has all the records to prove it.

Since she reached out to Occupy Atlanta a few weeks ago, we were able to work with the Rainbow Push Coalition to put off her home auction for one month--but that’s not good enough. Occupy Atlanta and the newly formed Occupy Our Homes - Atlanta will begin a full scale occupation of Pamela’s home until Bank of America makes a deal to keep her in it. Occupy Atlanta and Occupy Our Homes will work with her community to establish a base for defending other homes at risk of foreclosure and eviction. We plan to target private and public institutions that continue to disrespect Vine City residents.

Delina Pierre and family, apparent victims like millions nationwide of foreclosure fraud, are facing eviction today from their home of seven years at 4441 NW 36th Court, Lauderdale Lakes. Pierre had been foreclosed several years ago by US Bank, a financial institution which has no standing in the case at all based on a perusal of Pierre's documents. The home, appraised at over $150,000, was sold at auction last week for about $97,000. The case, like the vast majority, wreaks of fraud.

This will be the second action in less than a week in which Occupy Ft. Lauderdale Foreclosure Mobilization has called on local activists to defend a family from eviction. Last week, the group galvanized an eviction defense on behalf of Jessie Museau in North Miami Beach, though ultimately the court granted a 30-day stay before the eviction could be enforced

OFLFM has been part of or led the stoppage of four evictions in south Florida over the past three-and-a-half months, all of them based on fraudulent loan and other documentation. But the case of Ms. Pierre is particularly heinous in that no evidence seems to exist proving that the foreclosing bank, US Bank, held title to the home at the time of foreclosure.

Amos and Claudine Delva bought their home on a quiet little street in Pompano Beach, Florida approximately 15 years ago. They signed the mortgage and note with IndyMac Federal Bank, FSB. In 2008, when the construction industry crashed, Mr. Delva, a construction worker, sensing that he might be in trouble if the downslide in the industry continued began actively working with IndyMac to modify his loan. Soon thereafter IndyMac Federal Bank, FSB filed its foreclosure Complaint, January 3, 2009.

The Delva’s are asking and what they have always asked for, is that IndyMac Federal Bank, FSB return the funds to the investment company, ILN Management, LLC and renegotiate the loan. Help us keep this family in their home by delivering this message:

"We, Amos and Claudine’s neighbors, friends, citizens of Broward County and the state of Florida demand that Amos and Claudine Delva of 270 NE 27th Street, Pompano Beach, FL (Broward County Case # CACE 09-000519 (05) be granted the right to stay in their home, the Summary Judgment be vacated, that the title be returned to the Delvas and for IndyMac to return the funds to the investor and to renegotiate the loan in good faith!"

Occupy Palm Beach County has started a bold and exciting new program to Occupy the Courts. This Working Group will occupy the Foreclosure Courts in Palm Beach County. They will work to have 2 volunteers monitor both of the Foreclosure Court Rooms 401 4A and 4B/6D Monday through Thursday from 8:45 to 10:30 AM.

Occupy Our Homes DC wins another victory. At 9 AM, Monday, April 2nd, J.P. Morgan Chase directed U.S. Marshals to evict Dawn Butler from her home on Maryland Avenue NE in Capitol Hill. With a strong show of force over 40 activists were present and determined to defend Ms. Butler's home from eviction. Metro Washington Police and the moving crew had arrived while activists sang songs and blocked the staircase. At the same time, Ms. Butler was at Landlord and Tenant court in Northwest Washington and successfully requested that the judge call off the eviction.

Representatives from other housing activist groups including City Life/Vida Urbana and the Backbone Campaign spoke out against unfair evictions at the home. Bertina Jones, who joined with Occupy Our Homes DC to get her house back from Freddie Mac in February, also spoke at the home and expressed solidarity with Ms. Butler's case. The movement for housing for all is growing in the District of Columbia. Ms. Butler has been a tenant since 2006 and following the foreclosure of her landlord has tried to exercise her rights as a tenant. There will be a court date this spring where the merits of the case will be heard. The spring offensive is underway.

Occupy Fights Foreclosures (OFF), a sub-committee of Occupy LA, joined neighbors in the South Adams community to help a widow who fell victim to foreclosure fraud by at least three companies.

Monday evening, dozens of anti-foreclosure protesters responded to an emergency eviction appeal from a Dirma Rodriguez, a widow, and her 27-year old daughter, Ingrid Ortiz, who is disabled with a condition called toxic plasmosis cerebral palsy.

Ortiz has special needs and the family has the home build to accommodate her needs with wheelchair ramps and other accessibility alterations. Mrs. Rodriguez has been unable to find a place to rent that could accommodate her daughter’s special needs. Eviction could mean separation of this family and possible institutionalization of Ingrid.

A crew of occupiers makes a home of a Bank of America lobby with a couch, a coffee table, a rug and a potted plant. "Bank of America took our homes so we though we'd move in here!" Join them March 15 as America turns the tables on the nation's largest bank!

Ms. Christine Frazer, a 62 yr old widow, along with four generations of the Frazer family are being threatened with eviction from the place they have called home since 1994. Mrs. Frazer refinanced her home in 2001; but after losing her husband in 2002, taking in her elderly mother in 2003, losing her job in 2009 due to a “no-fault, one-minute-late tardy policy,” and being denied unemployment after two appeals, she was left with no way to pay her mortgage.

The very same crumbling economy that caused the value of Chris’ home to depreciate left her hopeless in today’s highly competitive job market. Mrs. Frazer’s home was foreclosed on in October of 2011 after faithfully paying her mortgage for over 15 years! Investors One Corporation sent her a statement claiming she had to pay $176,000 on a house that the very same document stated is only worth $40,000.This foreclosure is wrongful and Occupy Atlanta will assist Ms. Frazer in the fight to expose the fraudulent actions that have taken place. Many other families and individuals across America have fallen victim to these unlawful practices and Occupy Atlanta is fighting against such injustices case by case.

At 11 am. on the morning of March 6, 2012, Occupy Atlanta will hold a press conference at the Frazer family home located at 3662 Wellhaun Rd, Decatur GA 30034. Christine Frazer and Occupy Atlanta will address the circumstances of this wrongful foreclosure and will announce immediate steps they will be taking.

In a last-minute attempt to save his family home, Eduardo Acosta contacted Occupy Long Beach Monday asking for help, after the Sheriff had posted an eviction notice effective Tuesday. This morning, an Occupy L.A. group called Occupy Fights Foreclosures (OFF), has issued a call asking supporters to assemble at the Acosta house.

In a judgment earlier this year, the Acosta family won their case due to fraudulent foreclosure paperwork. The judge ruled in that case that Green Century Investment Group / IndyMac did not have legal standing to evict the family or foreclose on the house. The banks simply waited a month and five days and sent another eviction notice.

“It’s been stressful since we got the letter,” said Eduardo Acosta. “We couldn’t sleep. We were up late hours thinking, what are we going to do with our family?”

Occupy activists rally in support of Acosta family less than a week after the San Francisco County Recorder released an audit report of foreclosures that shows systematic legal violations and questionable activities on 99% of the files they reviewed.

We, the occupiers of Glen Iris, are asking everyone locally and nationally to take action in Solidarity with us as we fight Chase Bank. Since this bank is a behemoth, we cannot defeat it only in Atlanta, we need to bring the fight everywhere. We are calling a day of action against Chase on Tuesday, March 13, 2012, to demand a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions. March 13th is the birthday of Jamie Dimon, the CEO of Chase Bank.

JPMorgan Chase, doing business as Chase Bank, through a series of recent mergers and acquisitions has become the largest banking institution in the United States. This expansion has been fueled to a great degree by its extensive investment in the two main subprime mortgage originators, not to mention nearly $25 billion in bailout funds that rewarded the bank for its criminal swindling of millions of American families.

MEET BERTINA: A familiar story to millions of Americans, Bank of America used the financial crisis to take advantage of Bertina Jones. Bertina did everything right. Like millions of Americans, she fell behind on her mortgage after losing her job in wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Hoping to take responsibility for missed payments, she met with Bank of America to renegotiate her mortgage, and was offered a modification in January of 2009. She kept making payments, and while the bank acknowledged it had received her money, it told her that her paperwork was lost. In the Summer of 2010, she was informed that the modification was off the table, and in September, Bank of America sold her mortgage to Freddie Mac which continued with foreclosure.

Fred Shrum bought his house in 2007 and began working on it. “I had hoped to lay down some roots and become part of this community,” he said. “I’ve been fixing up the house since then, installing new windows and insulation. I think I’ve put about $20,000 into it in renovations, altogether.”

Shrum isn’t ready to let go. As he said at the press conference, he and his family are prepared to stay in the house as an act of civil disobedience and in protest of how bailed-out banks treat U.S. homeowners. With the help of Occupy Our Homes and groups including Occupy Detroit, People Before Banks, Moratorium Now, and UAW Local 600, they will fight the eviction.

“I don’t expect anyone to give me the house,” Shrum said. “I just want to be treated fairly. I want Wells Fargo to come back to the table and see if we can find an arrangement that works in both our interests.”

ACCE is calling for action to help Arturo de los Santos and his family.

Arturo de los Santos has lived in his Riverside, CA with his wife and four children for over ten years. When the economic crisis hit in 2008, the factory he works at reduced his hours. Like millions of hardworking Americans, the reduced income forced him to pursue a modification in his mortgage, which is owned by Freddie Mac. The mortgage servicer, JP Morgan Chase, informed de los Santos that in order to negotiate a loan modification he had to be in default on his loan. De los Santos was caught in the Catch-22 that proved to be profitable for Freddie Mac but devastating for his family.

Brooklyn, NY — This afternoon approximately one hundred people peacefully and powerfully disrupted a foreclosure auction by bursting into song. At 3pm the foreclosure auctioneer attempted to start bidding on homes that had been foreclosed upon. When the bidding started, the courtroom burst into song:

“Mr. AuctioneerAll the people hereAre asking you to stop all the sales right nowWe’re going to survive, but we don’t know how”

It was just six days ago the Pastor Dexter Johnson of Higher Ground Empowerment Center (HGEC) reached out to Occupy Atlanta in the 11th hour of the congregation's fight to stay in the 108 year old Vine City Church. Late Wednesday(1/11/12) Occupy Atlanta rolled out tents and within 12 hours BB&T retreated from their attempt to evict the church.

After several hours of negotiations with between BB&T Bank, Occupy Atlanta, HGEC, and Joe Beasly with Rainbow PUSH, we have a deal that HGEC can more than live with. HGEC is going nowhere, not only did they get their deed to the land back, they have been given back the nine lots surrounding the Church for development, and a commitment from BB&T to meet again, with in 30 days, to discuss ways they can justly invest in the Vine City Community.

Today is a victory for HGEC, Occupy Atlanta, Vine City, and all the 99%. This victory was facilitated not by experts but by everyday folks working together to fight for their communities.

Pastor Dexter Johnson reached out to Occupy Atlanta on the eve of a court date in which BB&T bank had hoped to force the eviction of the 108 year old Vine City Church. Higher Ground Empowerment Center has been a lifeline in this underserved community, so it was with no hesitation that we committed to fight alone side the church.

Update: We won! Helen Bailey's home was saved and she'll be able to keep it!

Tell Chase that in Nashville, in America, we don’t throw elderly ladies out on the street. In Nashville, in America, we fight for what’s right. Helen Bailey marched for civil rights. It's our turn to march for Helen Bailey.

Higher Ground Empowerment Center(HGEC) is a neighborhood church in the heart of Atlanta's Vine City. For the past 108 years, Higher Ground Empowerment Center has been a pillar in the historic Vine City community, one of Atlanta’s most under-resourced communities. HGEC has offered an array of much-needed programs and services including free healthcare screenings, a food pantry, job fairs, an annual Vine City Thanksgiving dinner, Karate classes for youth, Saturday tutorials, and summer camps for students.

In 2008, the church suffered a major blow in the form of a disastrous tornado that ripped apart the property. In order to rebuild, the church was forced to take out a loan, one that became increasingly difficult to pay back and unrepresentative of the resale opportunities as donations and property values fell during the recession. The church repeatedly attempted to refinance the loan to be more representative of the property’s value, but BB&T, a company whose CEO, Kelly King, claims that their “foreclosure process is a values based on an approach where [they] work with our clients,” has not responded. The cruel irony is that BB&T bank spends about 5 million dollars a year on teaching positions and research on what they refer to as “the moral foundations of capitalism.” We find these morals and values suspiciously absent when the opportunity to profit off of the very people who bailed out BB&T to the tune of $3.1 billion comes about.

HGEC’s Pastor Dexter Johnson stated, “108 years of history, we don’t want to see it disappear, be lost in foreclosure. 2012 is the year of triumph. Though we may be down, we are not broken, we will not be moved.”

Occupy Baltimore's branch of Occupy Our Homes is acting in solidarity with other branches of the Occupy Our Homes movement by uniting local communities against foreclosure and eviction. Baltimore has been particularly hard hit by the big banks’ predatory lending and fraudulent foreclosure practices. Now it is time to take a stand. As our first action, we will be helping Lila, a woman from the West side of Baltimore, fight back against her January 10 eviction.

Update: Lesliane has won a victory that will allow her to have a good home. Read about it here.

Yesterday members of Occupy San Diego, Occupy Oceanside, ACCE and Occupy Temecula joined Lesliane Bouchard and her family at their Murrieta, CA home and occupied it! Lesliane Bouchard has declared that she has joined the Occupy Our Homes movement and is pledging not to leave her home if foreclosed and evicted. She is hosting a one-night occupation at her home and will be asking the occupy movement to stand by her side to resist eviction if First Mortgage Corporation refuses to work with her.

This is a brief video which explains a little bit about what we at Occupy Atlanta try to do with each community we move into. We try to organize the community to take on its own home defense. In Riverdale community members have made us aware of other community issues (kids having nothing to do, vacant homes being used for crime and vandalism, home owners association fees going nowhere but someone's pocket). As we move forward in Riverdale we're trying to have community meetings and see how Occupy Atlanta and the ideas of the Occupy movement can help community members create a community instead of just a smattering of houses losing value and being left abandoned. We've mapped the community and as we canvas to gauge support we keep track of everything.

The occupation of 702 Vermont in East New York has continued strong since December 6th. The home is being readied for the family of Alfredo Carrasquillo, Tasha Glasgow, and their 9-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son. To prepare the house, there a bunch of supplies that we all feel we need to make this place more homey and organized. See the list of supplies and how to make a donation below.

The National Day of Action to stop and reverse foreclosures was an incredible and inspiring launch of the Occupy Our Homes movement. Around the country, thousands of activists turned out to support dozens of home actions around the country. The occupation of homes in East New York, organized by Occupy Wall Street, VOCAL-NY, Organizing for Occupation, New York Communities for Change and countless supporters has continued to inspire us as their occupations have continued. Here is a series of videos which take us through the December 6th Day of Action to show how the day unfolded. Go below the fold to see the videos.

Cari Mitchell has a post up sharing the story of the re-occupation of 702 Vermont Street in East New York. She's been taking part with Occupy Wall Street since its first week. Her post tells the story of a movement and a community coming together to help a family in need get a home.

In line with the growing Occupy Our Homes movement, Take Back the Land Rochester and Occupy Rochester held a rally outside of the City leaders at Vision Future: Rochester's Leadership Team conference held by Rochester Downtown Development Corporation. Instead of investing in corporate projects they asked that this money could be used to deal with the growing housing epidemic in the city.

Today is the Occupy Our Homes National Day of Action to Stop and Reverse Foreclosures. Actions are taking place in over twenty-five cities around America, as the Occupy movement joins with homeowners and people fighting for a place to live. Our system has been serving Wall Street, big banks, and the one percent. Clearly this has not worked. We are the 99% and we are reclaiming our homes.

Follow this post for updates from around the country today. Go below to see videos from the day of action.

On October 13, members of Organizing for Occupation (O4O), a collective of New York City housing activists, teamed up with Occupy Wall Street protesters to successfully block a Brooklyn foreclosure auction. Nine people were arrested, and all were released with minor charges. They called on the judicial system to institute an immediate moratorium on all foreclosures until a fair system of home loans is put into place, and disrupted the auction of several foreclosed Brooklyn properties in Civil Court by singing:

Occupy Wall Street has announced that December 6, 2011 will be a big day of action for the movement, as they join the fight alongside homeowners to stop and reverse foreclosures. Read the full statement below.

Stop Foreclosures

Start Your Own Home Occupation Campaign

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